One Israeli strike kills 70 family members of UN employee in Gaza Strip

More than 70 members of an extended family, including a veteran UN humanitarian, were killed in an Israeli military airstrike in the Gaza Strip, The Observer reports. According to the British publication, 56-year-old Issam al-Mughrabi was killed along with his wife, five children and dozens of other relatives in an explosion near Gaza City, the head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said, calling for an urgent ceasefire.

“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. – The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target. This war must end. No more family should have to endure the pain and suffering that Issam’s family and countless others are experiencing.”

Hamas also said Saturday that an Israeli airstrike may have killed five hostages. Abu Ubaydah, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, said it had lost contact with the group responsible for holding the Israelis captive.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the claims, but it could increase pressure on the government from some families of those held in Gaza who are calling for a ceasefire to allow the release of their loved ones, The Observer said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the war will continue until Hamas is “destroyed,” ignoring growing international demands for a ceasefire. Such demands are now coming even from Tel Aviv’s close allies such as Britain and Germany, which are concerned about civilian casualties from the Israeli offensive.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday pressed Netanyahu to protect civilian lives in Gaza, the White House said.

Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that he had a “long conversation” with Netanyahu, Reuters reported, which he described as a “private conversation.”

In response to a follow-up question, Biden said, “I did not ask for a ceasefire.”

The White House statement said the two leaders discussed the “goals and phasing” of Israel’s military campaign and the importance of securing the release of all remaining hostages.

The death toll from Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip has risen to 20,258, most of them women and children, Hamas-run health authorities said on Saturday. Thousands more people are believed to be buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

UNDP aid worker Mughrabi is the latest addition to the UN’s rapidly growing list of casualties among these deaths. On average, one or two UN staff died in Gaza every day of the war – a total of more than 130 people. “We have never seen such casualties in the history of the United Nations,” said its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Speaking after the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a massive increase in humanitarian aid supplies, he warned that moving more supplies across the border into Gaza was only the first step towards preventing the imminent threat of famine and deadly epidemics.

“Many people measure the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza by the number of trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, the UN and our partners that are allowed to transport aid across the border,” Guterres said. “This is mistake”.

Distribution within Gaza is equally important, and Israel’s methods of warfare “create enormous obstacles” to getting aid to hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need, Guterres added. “An effective relief operation in Gaza requires security, personnel who can operate safely, logistics and the resumption of business activities. These four elements do not exist,” he said.

There are not enough trucks or fuel, roads are bombed or littered with debris or unexploded ordnance, and security is weakening as hunger and desperation grow. UN staff are often forced to work without electricity or communications due to mass displacement and the death of relatives, colleagues and friends.

The logistics challenges detailed by Guterres include the simple issue of vehicle capacity. Every pallet of aid arriving at the border must be unloaded and the cargo transferred to different trucks inside Gaza for distribution there.

“We ourselves have a limited and insufficient number of trucks for this,” Guterres said. “Many of our vehicles were destroyed or abandoned after our forced, hasty evacuation from the north, but Israeli authorities did not allow any additional trucks to operate in Gaza. This seriously complicates the relief operation.

“Delivery in the north is extremely dangerous due to active conflict, unexploded ordnance and severely damaged roads. Widespread communication outages make it nearly impossible to coordinate the distribution of aid and inform people how to access it.”

Guterres said a humanitarian ceasefire was the only way to provide aid in quantities that would “begin to meet the desperate needs of the people in Gaza.”

The UN Security Council did not call for a pause in fighting on Friday after the US said it would veto any resolution passed during the long week of negotiations. Instead, he called only for the creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

The United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, says it has the right to defend itself against Hamas after militants broke through the border on Oct. 7 and killed about 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and took more than 200 others hostage.

Hamas-controlled authorities said on Saturday that Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed more than 200 people in 24 hours. These claims could not be independently verified. Fighting is currently concentrated in Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Younis, Agence France-Presse reports.

Following reports of massive Israeli shelling, gray and black smoke rose over the northern coastal area and in Khan Yunis, The Observer writes.

Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi visited troops on the ground in Khan Yunis, telling them the operation was “very impressive, really very impressive, both the attack here and the execution of the operation in a safe manner,” AFP reported.

Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, top military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said late Friday that Israeli forces were “approaching full operational control.” As fighting raged around Gaza City, Reuters, citing local residents, reported that thick smoke rose from northern Jabaliya, Gaza’s largest refugee camp.

Israel has been urging civilians to leave northern Gaza since its ground operation began in October. But not everyone can move, and even areas considered safe in the south are being bombed. With shelters overcrowded and food and water in short supply, some residents decided to try to wait out the fighting at home.

The latest evacuation orders apply to Bureij, a refugee camp in central Gaza, and affect more than 150,000 people, said Thomas White, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Gaza. The growing impact of Israeli airstrikes and blockades means that many internal refugees now travel on foot or in donkey carts. Almost the entire population of Gaza has been displaced, some several times.

“The Israeli army is simply ordering people to move to areas where airstrikes are ongoing,” White claims in a post on X. “No safe place, nowhere to go.”

Israel blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying the militant group uses civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, to cover military installations. Hamas denies using people as human shields.